Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Business systems in an enterprise have traditionally been focused on providing software-based solutions. Customers have been increasingly interested in “appliance” and “managed service” technologies, which emphasize hardware as well as software in providing a well-rounded solution to the needs of a modern business. Conventional wisdom has been to acquire, partner with, or build the necessary technologies traditionally resident in hardware companies and third-party service organizations and to combine these system components to create a solution. The resulting solution is often a heterogeneous mix of systems and services that may not be easy to manage across the solution lifecycle and may not provide the desired total cost of ownership profile for a customer.